The Dangers of Control

As a leader, you do have to engage in a little extra oversight sometimes — perhaps on a high-stakes project or when one of your people is new or taking on something unfamiliar.

But oversight that’s based on your anxiety and not your team members’ performance is micromanagement. (Tweet+Share)

You’re micromanaging when a presentation is ready to go and you start tweaking fonts at the last minute. You’re micromanaging when you tell one of your team members how to execute an assignment before she can develop her own plan. And you’re definitely micromanaging if you constantly send reminders or ask for updates when there’s no reason to doubt a team member’s reliability.

If you find yourself doing things like that, ask yourself these questions:

-Does your team truly understand what you need to do? Could explaining the goals more thoroughly help you step back and let your people work more independently?

-And this is the hard one: Are you a control freak? If the answer is yes, ask yourself whether micromanaging is actually helping your cause.

When you micromanage, you stifle your team’s creativity. (Tweet+Share) Your people feel untrusted, unvalued and resentful. It burns them out fast — especially your achievers and high potentials. And it burns you out as well.

Can you find ways to let go a bit and make room for others’ to step out this week? Yes, you’ll lose some control, but you’ll gain a workplace with more trust, ease and creativity.